New Defender's Study Bible Notes

1:3 in heavenly places. This fascinating phrase occurs five times in this epistle (Ephesians 1:3; 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12). The phrase could read simply “in the heavenlies,” since “places” has been inferred, as is clear especially in Ephesians 1:20, where Christ is said to be seated at God’s “right hand in the heavenly [places].”